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A Simple Tool

Subject:              Social Studies
Grade:                 4-8
Presented by:  Chalae B. Logan, Boise, Idaho
                        (Based on the International Pencil lesson plan from National Geographic.)
Geography Themes:        Place, location, human interaction, movement   
Geography Standards:     1, 4, 7, 10, 11, 14, 16, 17, 18
Skills:
Critical thinking, theorizing, reading, organizing, synthesizing, writing, presentation, communication, researching
Objectives:
1. Discuss ways pencils are used and the people who use them.  2. Identify the raw materials used to manufacture a pencil. 3. Locate on a map the origins of the raw materials used in the manufacture of a pencil and the path of product distribution. 4. Speculate about, then describe how a pencil is made and distributed. 5. Recognize the interconnectedness between the source of the raw materials, manufacturing, and distribution. 6. Evaluate how the interconnectedness between source, manufacture, and distribution affects their lives.
Method:
Through cooperative learning and whole group discussion of a common manufactured product (the pencil), students will learn about how products are manufactured, distributed, and marketed. The students will find out how products are developed from raw materials, by learning the history and uses of the pencil, where on the planet the raw materials come from, and how this product is connected to their own lives and places of residence.
Materials:
Paper, pencils, individual maps (laminated), wall map of the world, vis-a-vis’ pens, ruler, samples of various types of pencils, timeline, and the books (if available) The Pencil, Making Pencils,  and From Graphite to Pencil.
Procedures:
Introduction: Begin by presenting a riddle to the class. For the lower grades say, “I am taken from a mine, and shut up in a wooden case, from which I am never released, and yet I am used by almost everybody. What am I?”  (A pencil)  Or for the upper grades say, “We use it every day of our lives. It is virtually invisible, yet universal and indispensable part of our culture. Its function is beyond comment and directions for its use are unwritten. What is it?" Tell students that today the subject is the pencil.  Have students work with a partner and list as many ways to use a pencil, as they can as well as the different people who use them.

Tell the students: "Pencils seem to be common and unimportant, but they play a major role in our lives.  Our discussion has demonstrated this. Almost everyone has an adequate supply of pencils. Pencil manufacturing is a multimillion-dollar industry. There are many kinds of pencils manufactured to meet every need.  I collected pencils from around my house and classroom. I was surprised at how many I discovered in drawers, purses, boxes, on floors,under beds, behind furniture, and in the strangest places, like bathrooms, bookshelves, chalk trays, and dirty clothes baskets.”

Have students discuss the many kinds of pencils and their physical characteristics (color, length, design, the writing found on the erasers, shape).  Ask students what qualities they like in a pencil or what they don’t like about pencils they have used.  (Suggestions would include points that break, wood that splits or splinters, rough texture, marks that won’t erase or smudge, paper coating that doesn’t work well in electric pencil sharpeners. They might like particular colors or styles and sharp points.)

Discuss the amount of experimenting that has gone into the pencils we now use. The most important considerations in making good pencils are the ingredients and processes used in manufacturing pencils.  Ask if anyone knows how a pencil is made.  Specifically, how the lead is put into the wood. Have the students discuss their ideas.  Explain the process of making a pencil.   Have students list the parts of the pencil (pencil lead, wood casing, eraser, ferrule {the metal band}, lacquer). Hand out world maps and necessary information about the origin of the raw materials.  Determine what raw materials are used to produce each part.  Have students connect with the vis-a -vis pens and rulers the places of origin with their state.  Discuss the interconnectedness of these places.  Have students locate the places on the wall map as they discuss the locations.
Closure:
Review the facts learned or discussed concerning the pencil.  Have students reflect on how the pencil is a universal and indispensable part of our world culture.  What would we do without it!
Evaluation:
Did the students: (a) Discuss ways that pencils are used and by whom?  (b) Name the parts of the pencil?  (c) Identify the raw material found in pencils?
Extension:
Do the same activity using other item found in home or classroom (crayons, books).  Have students write letters to various manufacturers and request information about their products.  Discuss with the students the interconnectedness of grocery stores to the rest of the world.   Visit a local grocery store and have the students locate gods from other countries. Have them use maps to pinpoint these countries and make graphs to illustrate the movement of goods.  In cooperative learning groups, talk about how or what we would improve different products we now use.  In cooperative learning groups, have students develop an economic demonstration by creating a business and marketing it.  Students will gain an awareness and understanding of how geography influences the lives of people through the extraction of raw materials from the Earth, the manufacture of the raw materials, and finally the distribution of the finished product.  Students will gain an awareness and understanding of how that process or product has an affect on their own lives.  Students will understand that the things they use come from various parts of the world.  Share the ideas with the class.

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